How ought we to live? What is it to flourish as a human being? How should we best approach death? We all think about these questions at one time or another, and, as Socrates famously said, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’.
In showing how the great philosophers of human history reasoned — and what they reasoned about — the popular philosopher Peter Cave provides a readable and entertaining introduction to thinking philosophically, and how to change our everyday lives. He addresses questions the great philosophers have grappled with: When we look at the world, what is it that tells us what morally we ought to do? And how do we even know that something exists?
This book paints vivid portraits of a global assortment of great thinkers throughout history: from Confucius, Plato, Augustine and Spinoza to Samuel Beckett, Mary Wollstonecraft, Iris Murdoch and Simone de Beauvoir. But thiere is also contemporary relevance here – the book relates to current affairs and issues such as debates over free speech, moral character in leaders, ethical issues such as abortion debates, gun control and religion.
In each brief chapter, Cave brings to life these often prescient, always compelling philosophical thinkers, showing how their way of approaching the world grew out of their own lives and times and how we can use their insights today.
Now more than ever we need to understand how to live, and how to understand the world around us. This is the perfect guide.
Table of Contents:
Prologue
1 Lao Tzu: The Way to Tao
2 Sappho: Lover
3 Zeno of Elea: Tortoise Backer and Parmenidean Helper
4 Gadfly: aka ‘Socrates’
5 Plato: Charioteer, Magnificent Footnote Inspirer – ‘Nobody Does It Better’
6 Aristotle: Earth-Bound, Walking
7 Epicurus: Gardener, Curing the Soul, Ably Assisted by Lucretius
8 Avicenna: Flying Man, Unifier
9 Descartes: With Princess, With Queen
10 Spinoza: God-Intoxicated Atheist
11 Leibniz: Monad Man
12 Bishop Berkeley, ‘That Paradoxical Irishman’: Immaterialist, Tar-Water Advocate
13 David Hume: The Great Infidel or Le Bon David
14 Kant: Duty Calls, Categorically
15 Schopenhauer: Pessimism With Flute
16 John Stuart Mill: Utility Man, With Harriet, Soul-Mate
17 Søren Kierkegaard: Who?
18 Karl Marx: Hegelian, Freedom-Fighter
19 Lewis Carroll: Curiouser and Curiouser
20 Nietzsche: God-Slaying Jester, Trans-Valuer
21 Bertrand Russell: Radical, Aristocrat
22 G. E. Moore: Common-Sense Defender, Bloomsbury’s Sage
23 Heidegger: Hyphenater
24 Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist, Novelist, French
25 Simone Weil: Refuser and Would-Be Rescuer
26 Simone de Beauvoir: Situated, Protester, Feminist
27 Ludwig Wittgenstein: Therapist
28 Hannah Arendt: Controversialist, Journalist?
29 Iris Murdoch: Attender
30 Samuel Beckett: Not I
Epilogue
Dates of the Philosophers
Notes, References and Readings
Acknowledgements
In Memory
Name Index
Subject Index
About the Author :
Peter Cave is a popular philosophy writer and speaker. He read philosophy at University College London and King's College Cambridge and has held lectureships in philosophy at University College London, University of Khartoum, Sudan, and City University London.
Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Honorary Member of Population Matters, former member of the Council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and Chair of Humanist Philosophers – and is a Patron of Humanists UK. Peter has scripted and presented BBC radio philosophy programmes – from a series on the Paradox Fair to more serious ones on John Stuart Mill.
He is the author of Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide, Ethics: A Beginner’s Guide and The Big Think Book: Discover Philosophy through 99 Perplexities.
Review :
A very enjoyable introduction into Western philosophy. Light, conversational, entertaining and intellectually stimulating.
Chummy, amusing little book…witty…This is a light but thoughtful book.
Overall, [Peter] gives a sense of how vital, rich and multifaceted philosophy is.
This is an ideal guide to philosophical thinking; it does not try to reduce the views of those that it covers to bullet points, but instead engages with them in a thoughtful and witty way. Peter Cave is the perfect companion for a bright but leisurely walk through these labyrinths.
Britain's wittiest philosopher.
Here is an extraordinary philosophical journey taking us through a maze of thinkers. For all those seeking to understand the myriad modes of philosophical thinking—ancient and modern—this is the perfect introduction.
Peter Cave introduces the reader to thirty different thinkers. Not all are easily classified as academic philosophers: some are better thought of as sages or poets or playwrights. But each has something important to say about things that matter: rationality, science, sex, and duty, among other topics. Cave’s approach is to introduce each thinker through their chosen questions. From Sappho to Wittgenstein, from Arendt to Spinoza, we are able to enter into a chosen figure’s preoccupations and enjoyably think along. This is a much more effective and engaging approach than simple intellectual biography or summaries of key ideas. An absorbing and rewarding book.
Peter Cave introduces his top thirty thinkers with wit and clarity, and crams a surprising amount of judicious reflection into each of the short chapters.
Read this book. You may not learn to love like Sappho, cure like Avicenna, ponder like Spinoza, disguise yourself like Kierkegaard or rival any of the other fascinating eccentrics who fill the volume. But if you learn to think like Peter Cave – with freshness, humour, objectivity and penetration – you will have been amply rewarded.
